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Thursday, November 29

This picture is being reposted by women all over the world. Her expression says it all when she’s showing how most pregnant people everywhere feel at some point. The fact that she’s hairless also helps make the image funnier because we imagine the stretchy skin and misery as parts of pregnancy. I wonder if people tell her she’s glowing all the of the time. Everyone knows that pregnancy is a wonderful gift that brings women an even more wonderful gift. Doesn’t make it easy though. Regardless of how excited a mother is for their new bundle of joy, it doesn’t change the fact that some days are just long and miserable with no end in sight. Human is pregnant for around 9 months. Between doctor’s visits, calendars, and modern medicine, there is a lot that can be done to ease the discomfort and pain that can be day to day. However, if you are wild, leaving in our wonderful animal kingdom, it may be a lot longer that you are carrying your youngster, with little way to ease your pain.All animals can be different, and for some, pregnancy is short and over quickly. It doesn’t matter the details on length and time. Females of all species can come together and understand that pregnancy can be hard even if it is totally worth the wait.

This is Georgia, the cutest preggers goat we’ve ever seen. She is obviously not in the mood for a photo shoot and is ready to get these youngsters out of her. Though we don’t know how many are in there, we can be sure that Georgia will be an excellent Goat Mommy and we hope that they are as cute as she is.

In Indonesia, you can run across this Toque Macaque. These interesting looking monkeys are easy to distinguish because they are all rocking the same haircut. This pregnant one though looks like she could use a break; she’s ready to meet her babies.

It isn’t like monk seals are thin to begin with, so many may be mistaken as pregnant when they are really just a little chubby. This one, however, is really pregnant and thinking that this is a good spot to nap on the beach. She is relaxing and preparing her birth.

This pregnant doggie is wearing the usually grumpy bulldog face with a little-added pregnancy attitude. It looks like the sweetie, Georgia, is ready to have her litter of puppies. On average, dogs have about 11 puppies each time they give birth. Growing 6 puppies over their average of 62 days gestation has to be a lot of work.

Ferrets look absolutely adorable pregnant, but I’m not sure how they move around. They are one animal that looks like they must be miserable the entire time. And, there’s no telling how many are growing inside those thin bodies. Ferrets average 6-8 babies at a time, but they can have up to 18.

I think that it’s actually hard for guinea pigs to look miserable, but this one is going well. Whereas guinea pigs usually only have 2 in their litter, this one was about to deliver 5. Once again, a 60-70 day gestation period doesn’t seem like a lot when thinking about growing 5 new lives.

This grey seal looks like she’s hoping her 11 ½ month pregnancy will end soon. With all seals, they aren’t exactly small creatures, to begin with, but their pregnancies can make them look huge and misshapen. Her pleading eyes appear to be asking for this nightmare to be over.

This zebra appears to be grinning which we know is probably not the case. Zebra’s year-long pregnancies can be particularly harsh and dangerous on both mother and baby. However, as opposed to lots of other animals, the pregnancy usually only result in one.

Judging from this picture, giraffes have to get a little creative to figure out how to manage their pregnancy. This picture shows a very pregnant giraffe trying to drink way she’s squatting down shows she has a lot more coordination than it would appear. She will most likely only have one baby after the 13-15 months that she’ll be pregnant.

This pony looks mad at the world. I think anyone would be if their pregnancy lasted 340 days. Since ponies already are known for having attitude problems on their own, pregnancy means that they should probably be avoided altogether.

Even though this pigs bow is beautiful, she really looks like she’s fallen and she can’t get up. Pigs eat and eat constantly when they're pregnant, which makes sense since they can have between 10 and 23 little piglets at one time. The best part of all is that pigs are already kinda fat, so their pregnancy may go unnoticed until a couple weeks before they deliver.

So, frogs aren’t really the same as the rest of the list in terms of having babies. However, this tiny frog can carry between 200 to 200,000 of those eggs a year. Regardless of the delivery process, that can’t be an easy thing to do.

A hippo isn’t exactly a small creature to begin with. When she’s pregnant, she can become super mean and even worse after she has her baby. Her need to protect her young can be fierce. She usually only has one baby at a time, but even so, that one can be over 10 times the size of a human baby.

Seahorses are opposite from everything else when discussing reproduction. It is the male seahorse that carries up to 1,500 seahorse babies at once, and not the female. This makes them the only animal in the animal kingdom to do it this way.

There is no doubting that a pregnant squirrel is adorable. After just 45 days of pregnancy, a squirrel will give birth to 2 or 3 babies, or up to 7. It is hard to imagine an animal that small can create so much life.

Kiki the Gorilla is probably the most famous gorilla that we know, and definitely the most famous one that we have seen pregnant. Here she is looking very motherly, showing her belly, and rubbing it with maternal instincts. Gorilla babies are only born 3-4 pounds and usually, gorilla mommies only have one at a time. They will have 3-4 over their lifetime though.

The look on her face tells us that she is not enjoying this moment. Since a donkey can be pregnant from 10-14 months, there is absolutely now wondering why she’s miserable.

Bunnies are kinda known for making baby bunnies. Their whole time pregnant is only 31 days, which means that they can reproduce often throughout the year. It isn’t a myth though, bunnies really are good mommies and do a lot to take care of their babies when they are born.

This fat cat looks exhausted. Since cats are always our household nappers, it is no surprise that a pregnant cat might sleep a lot more. At the end of their pregnancy, they can have up to 5 little kittens to take care of, which they usually try to keep away from anyone at the beginning.

She looks happy, relaxed, and comfortable with herself. This orangutan will deliver her baby and take care of it well. They nurse their young for close to 5 years, which is slightly easier since they only have one at a time.

She does not look happy with this picture and she looks like she is ready for a nap. Chocolate labs can have up to 10 puppies in one litter making for a lot of work for mom. They stay pregnant around 63 days and will breed a few times throughout their life.

So a calf weighs about 1,600 pounds. With that being said, this momma must be miserable. The only plus side she’s got going is that there is usually only one in there, but there can be two. They are pregnant for close to a year and very ready to be done by the end.

I don’t think that this bulldog has a care in the world. She really doesn’t care about this photo being taken. Bulldogs, like the previous chocolate lab, stay pregnant about 63 days and can have up to 10 puppies. It is easy to see why resting her belly on the floor seems like the best option.

When her pregnant body wanted cereal, she got cereal. This picture is an example of hedgehogs being purely adorable. They are pregnant about 35 days and only do this once or twice during their lives. Hedgehogs are absolutely great to watch at any time, but pregnant ones must be amazing.

We all know that turtles don’t deliver live babies, but depending on the type of turtle, they can carry the eggs up to two years. That is a really long time to be uncomfortable. Nature tells them exactly what to do with the eggs and these turtle mommies are consistent in bringing their babies to life.

Saturday, November 24

Formerfirstlady Michelle Obama’s memoir “Becoming” has become the fastest-selling book of 2018 at Barnes & Noble, surpassing the Trump administration tell-all “Fear: Trump in the White House” by veteran journalist Bob Woodward. In addition to being this year’s fastest seller, Barnes & Noble also announced that “Becoming” had the best first-week sales of any adult book since 2015’s “Go Set a Watchman,” the highly anticipated second novel from “To Kill A Mockingbird” author Harper Lee. Publisher Penguin Random House announced that “Becoming” sold more than 725,000 copies on its first day of release last week, the highest single-day sales of any book by the publisher this year.“Becoming” chronicles Obama’s path from a child growing up in the South Side of Chicago to her time as the first lady of the United States. The book also features Obama’s harshest public criticism of President Donald Trump. She writes that she will “never forgive” Trump for spreading the baseless “birther” conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was not born in the United States.“What if someone with an unstable mind loaded a gun and drove to Washington? What if that person went looking for our girls? Donald Trump, with his loud and reckless innuendos, was putting my family’s safety at risk. And for this, I’d never forgiven him,” Michelle Obama writes. Obama’s memoir is just the latest in a series of splashy political book releases this year. Barnes & Noble said in October, just before the midterm elections, that there had been a 57 per cent boost in political book sales from a year earlier. Woodward’s “Fear” sold 900,000 copies on its first day and 1.1 million in the first week, breaking records at the 94-year Simon & Schuster. Former FBI Director James Comey’s “A Higher Loyalty” sold 600,000 copies in its first week in April, while the controversial “Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House” by Michael Wolff sold 192,000 books during its first week in January. Hillary Clinton’s election post-mortem, “What Happened,” had the lowest sales of the bunch, notching 167,000 copies sold during its first week last September. Michelle Obama is currently promoting “Becoming” on a cross-country book tour that has filled arenas with crowds in the thousands.

southAfricanpresident Cyril Ramaphosa has signed a new minimum wage bill, local media portals in the country reported. Although signed, the new minimum wage of 3,700 rands (about $266) a month is expected to take effect on January 1, 2019. It is set to benefit some six million workers currently earning below the amount. The minimum wage, a policy championed by President Ramaphosa is seen as an important step to tackle labour instability and wage inequality. Formulation of the minimum wage law started as far back as in 2015 by the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac). Parties agreed to set the minimum hourly wage rate of R20 in 2017. Its initial implementation date was pushed from May 1 following a series of blunders during the bill’s drafting period. Monthly minimum wage is “the lowest wage that an employer is allowed to pay; determined by contract or by law.”Its supporters say it will reduce inequality and stimulate economic growth as workers can spend more. The powerful trades union congress, COSATU, has considered the move as a victory for years of pushing for the increase. But critics say it could lead to increased unemployment, already at record highs, with some employers unable to afford higher wage bills. The economy which slid into recession is struggling with unemployment of over 27%. More than two decades after the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa’s economy is still characterised by deep wealth inequality and high levels of unemployment.

Nothingbeatsyou and your friends making strides and advancing in your careers together, and that’s exactly what these 5 women have done. Kerry Donovan, Tammy Story, Faith Winter, Jessie Danielson and Brittany Pettersen, “The Fab Five,” are all longtime friends, serving as bridesmaids in each other’s weddings, and now they’ve all been elected as state senators in Colorado. The women supported each other during their campaign, Winter shared while speaking. She said: Through the campaign, the five of us were very supportive of each other. We had several text chains where we would check in with one another and see how we were doing.”If a particularly bad ad or piece of mail came out. We would reassure each other on the text chain, “Have you seen the mail? It’s so awful, how are you doing?”Danielson shared that the wins were “pretty amazing,” and she and her friends “were all in it together.”Donovan discussed how it was important to have friends who were going through the same struggles, who could relate to the difficult parts of the journey. Our families are incredibly supportive, but it’s not their name on the thousands of pieces of mail going out or on the TV. So being able to talk to them, and they are going through the exact same thing, it was so supportive. Congratulations to all 5 of them!

Women across Ireland could go on strike over how rape trials are conducted after a jury was told a 17-year-old's underwear suggested consent, an Irish MP has revealed. The lawyer of a 27-year-old man who has been cleared of rape argued that the trial should consider whether the young woman's clothing and lace thong meant she had consented to sex. Following the trial, which sparked anger across the country, MP Ruth Coppinger has suggested that woman may strike in a bid to protest against how rape trials are conducted. Referencing the Google employees who walked out after one of the company bosses received a payout after sexually harassing a colleague, Ms Coppinger said that it's the kind of action needed. In order to prove her point, Ms Coppinger brandished a black thong around Ireland's parliament, the Dail, to air her outrage at how the case had been handled. Since the trial women have been posted images of their underwear on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #ThisIsNotConsent, to highlight the damaging nature of including a women's choice of clothing in cases.

Protests have been held in Dublin, Limerick and Belfast as well as one in Cork on Wednesday, where around 400 women hung thongs on the railings of the courthouse where the trial had been held. Ms Coppinger said that defence teams in past rape cases have used clothing, fake fan and type of contraception as validation of consent. Rape Crisis Network said that a maximum of ten per cent of rapes was reported, and one in 40 of these cases therapists were brought to an appropriate level of justice, Ms Coppinger added. She said: 'How heroic and what levels of fortitude must a woman have to pursue a rape trial in this country? 'It might seem incongruous or embarrassing to show a thong in the Dail but I do so to highlight how a rape victim feels at her underwear being shown in the incongruous setting on a courtroom.'Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has said that the treatment of alleged rape victims should be investigated by the government.

He added that there was 'no doubt' over the fact that the victim is never to blame as nobody asks to be raped. It is irrelevant what they chose to wear, where they were and who they were there with and whether they were intoxicated, he said. It has been suggested by political party Sinn Fein that it intends to amend the sexual offences bill which would ban any reference to women's clothing during these trials.

Polar night has begun in the northernmost U.S. city of Utqiagvik, Alaska, which now faces 65 days of darkness. Utqiagvik, formerly named Barrow, saw only 64 minutes of sunlight on Sunday, and following sunset at 1.44pm local time will not see the sun again until January 23, 2019, at 1.04pm.The city of about 4,000 residents is 320 miles above the Arctic Circle, north of which all latitudes experience some length of polar night. Some residents of the city gathered to 'celebrate' the final sunset of 2018 by watching 30 Days Of Night, the 2007 film that depicts Barrow, as it was then known, being overrun by vampires during polar night. Residents said that cloudy conditions prevented them from seeing a true sunset when the sun went down, but that didn't dampen their spirit for marking the occasion.

'Celebrating the beginning of Polar Night at 1:44pm (sunset) with good friends, great food, and lots of laughs at a Hollywood film where, on Polar Night, vampires take over our little town,' resident Kirsten Alburg wrote on Instagram.'We haven't seen the sun in 4 days, and another cloudy day today kept us from waving goodbye, but this fun snow mound photo-op proved that its spirit is still with us! Here's to another dark and wonderful winter at the top,' she said in a caption to a group photo.The polar night begins at the North Pole on the Autumnal Equinox and spreads south to the Arctic Circle until the Winter Solstice when it begins to retreat back north. Temperatures in Utqiagvik plunge during the polar night, dropping to average highs of -5 to -10 degrees Fahrenheit in the winter months. Overnight temperatures can drop to -10 to -20 degrees in winter. Despite the fact that it experiences polar night, Utqiagvik won't be in complete darkness. Civil twilight will provide enough illumination to see objects outside for between three to six hours a day in the city. During civil twilight, the sun is within six degrees below the horizon.

When she was in sixth grade, Sandra Parks wrote an award-winning essay about gun violence and crime in her hometown, Milwaukee. This week, two years after she described how “we are in a state of chaos,” she was fatally shot when someone outside fired a gun at her home and a stray bullet went into her bedroom. The shooting happened Monday as Sandra, 13, was watching television at the time, her sister, Tatiana Ingram, said.“My sister took it like a soldier: She just walked into the room and said, ‘Mama, I’m shot,’”Ms Ingram said. “She was only hit one time, in her chest. The bullet wasn’t even for her.”Sandra’s mother, Bernice Parks, said that her daughter “was everything this world is not.”“My baby did not like violence,” she said of Sandra, her middle child, adding, “She was my angel from the time she was in my womb to the time she came out.”

In Sandra’s essay, which placed third in her school district’s 2016Martin Luther King Jr. essay contest, she called for more empathy and less negativity, and emphasized the importance of getting an education to make the world a better place.“We are the future leaders, but if we don’t have an education, we will accomplish nothing,” she wrote. She described a world where “little children are victims of senseless gun violence” and “there is too much black-on-black crime.“Sometimes, I sit back and I have to escape from what I see and hear every day,” she wrote. “When I do; I come to the same conclusion … we are in a state of chaos.”Sandra, then a sixth-grader, said on her local Radio that she chose to write about violence because “all you hear about is somebody dying or somebody getting shot and people do not just think about whose father or son or granddaughter or grandson who it was that was just killed.”Vickie Brown-Gurley, who worked as the principal of Keefe Avenue School when Sandra was in fifth and sixth grade, remembered Sandra as a confident student with a “really good sense of humour.”Over the past two years, 12 students in Milwaukee public schools were homicide victims, a spokeswoman for the school district said. Sandra is the seventh since January.“It’s part of the insanity we see in Milwaukee,” Mayor Tom Barrett told reporters. “I look at where we are now as a city and it breaks my heart to stand here. As a dad, it breaks my heart.”The Milwaukee County district attorney’s office charged Isaac D. Barnes, 26, and Untrell Oden, 27, with first-degree reckless homicide and other counts in Sandra’s death. Both men have previous armed robbery convictions and were charged with possession of a firearm by a felon. A criminal complaint said that during a search of a nearby home, officers located Mr Oden, and found Mr Barnes “hiding in a closet” there.A detective who later processed the scene recovered a pistol from a garbage can in the living room as well as a semiautomatic rifle from the bedroom. Experts later test-fired the pistol, compared the casings to the ones found outside Sandra’s home, and found that they matched.“The motive is still being determined,” Sgt. Sheronda Grant, a spokeswoman for the Milwaukee Police Department, said.On Sandra’s family’s GoFundMe page, Ms. Parks said her daughter had hoped to attend college and become a writer.“Sandra was special,” Ms Parks said in an interview. “She didn’t deserve to leave this world like that.”

Phil Mickelson won “The Match” on Friday, or perhaps we should say he survived it, finally outlasting Tiger Woods over 22 holes and eventually a chip-and-putt shootout to clinch a $9 million bounty and some bragging rights over his long-time rival. Mickelson knows the value of a dollar, but as he sat with victory assured and darkness had long since descended on Shadow Creek, it was the latter that meant most to him at the moment.“Just know that I will never let you live this down,” Mickelson said in a joke-but-not-a-joke kind of way, after sinking the most lucrative putt of his life on the fourth extra hole of the pair’s pay-per-view exhibition showdown. “I will bring this up every time I see you. It is not the Masters or the U.S. Open, but it is nice to have something on you.”Woods holds the edge in majors, 14 to Mickelson's five, but however contrived (and objectionable to some) this event was, its conclusion was as memorable as tournaments with generations worth of historic prestige.It wasn’t a classic in terms of quality of play, but it offered drama galore throughout its final hour, starting when Woods escaped probable defeat for the first time with a clutch chip-in from the fringe of the 17th green. Mickelson missed a putt for the win their first time through 18, then Woods was wide from 8 feet on the first extra hole. At that point, the match became a shortened playoff, aiming at the 18th green again (and again and again) but from just 93 yards away. Mickelson saw two more chances at victory evade him, including a simple-looking 6-footer, before, at last, a perfect chip to 4 feet allowed him to drain the clincher and pump his fist in triumph.“It was an entertaining match,” Woods said. “I had plenty of opportunities to make putts to put pressure on Phil. I had a chance to win the match. That was an opportunity that got wasted.”Woods rarely discovered his best form and had his 48-year-old opponent managed to find any kind of putting rhythm, Mickelson may have run away with the match. Instead, Woods, who led just once (after winning the 12th) before his late burst, stuck around just long enough for his championship instinct to surface at last and provide what eventually became a thrilling and breathless finish. For all the intrigue of being able to listen to the mic'd up players and without the natural noise of a championship event, it was a tense affair throughout, with neither player able to produce much in the way of sparkling moments of inspiration. Both men seemed to be conscious that their every word would be heard by a television audience and while they were comfortable talking smack to each other at the news conference promoting the match, the chatter was largely constrained to pleasant small talk once things got underway. But the end made up for it. No matter how much you’ve got stashed in the bank, $9 million is a lot of loot to have hanging on a single putt.“I felt a lot of pressure,” Mickelson said. These are two players that once had little time for each other but while the relationship has thawed significantly, they still like to beat each other as much as ever. If not for technical issues that caused Turner and BR/Live to ultimately give away the $19.99 online stream for free following issues with the purchasing mechanism, the match may well have gone out as a commercial success as well as a worthy spectacle. Hearing what they had to say was just fine, nothing special, and a series of side action charity wagers saw Mickelson’s causes $400,000 ahead and injected a bit of extra life. But most of all, the best thing about it was the same thing that made them all-time greats of the sport. They care about winning, especially against each other.

The Comedy Wildlife Photographs Awards have announced its 30 finalists for the year 2018 which is usually determined by the standard of imagery and quality; the humour continues to improve from year to year with new animals that have not been represented. Entries for this year’s Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards have been whittled down to 41, with funny bears, owls and moose among the favourites. The top prize is a safari in Kenya and a trophy, but this year there is also a People’s Choice Award, voted for by the public. The contest was set up by wildlife photographers Tom Sullam and Paul Joynson-Hicks to raise awareness of conservation.“In just three years, this competition has gone from hilarious to utterly ridiculous humour, all provided to us by these fantastic animals,” said Sullam. Judges include wildlife TV presenter Kate Humble, comedian Hugh Dennis and nature expert Will Travers, with the overall winner announced at an awards night.

This is one curious bear we are looking at; one who is looking to develop its career in the art of taking photos. Questions are been asked if he is looking for prey or checking out his surroundings but nonetheless great things await this smart fella.

This is the face and gesture people make when they are caught in the act doing what they are not supposed to. In his little head, he is like ‘hey! Put that camera away, I’m trying to hide my stash.

We call this a Rhinopeacock; if only such animal exists, it would be a very special animal and a beautiful one at that, maybe even less aggressive. That’s why they say two heads are better than one.

We must confess we have never seen anything like this, it does the split with so much ease that it makes you question its fitness and athleticism; it is capable of competing at any event in the world.

Yeah, Mama is back from parents teachers meeting at school and it turns out they have all been naughty at school so mama is trying to figure out the punishment they are going to get.

The King comes home to his Queen only to see her passive which is very unusual. So he asks what the problem is and she replies saying she has a little headache. Move over, let me take care of my lady.

We call them the Black Skimmer Gang. These are seabirds who feed on insects, fishes and smaller animals from aquatic habitats. They look so notorious in their formation but then you know what’s next.

Yes, it is that time of the day when we choose to use the phrase ‘love is in the air’. You could either say these guys are on a date, just got engaged or married. It is such a beautiful photo; much credit to the cameraman.

You can refer to this as a proud citizen on duty. The bear is raising awareness concerning his territory; tries to tell us of the impending danger ahead. In other words, if you are going to go through my territory you should at least obey the laws of the land.

Whenever you see a predator in this position there is one thing on its mind which food. Try as much as possible to stay away from Peek A Boo or else you will serve as a good meal if care is not taken.This is a Crouching Tiger Peeking Moose in the making. It is interesting it is either playing a hide and seek game or trying to say every breath you take, every moose you make, every bond you break, I’ll be watching you.Isn’t it funny to see this lazy guy do some little yoga in the snow? After that, it is time to look for some food, rub my belly and sleep. Nevertheless, we are still proud of his commitment to his daily fitness routine.

The deer is like ‘oh you mean Dave’? He is not here; don’t ask me we don’t talk anymore. Look at his face; he just doesn’t know we caught him in a lie. He thinks he’s slick.

Winnie just got his head stuck in the honey pot again or was it hunting to trying to hide from the annoying cameraman? These guys won’t let the poor bear and its family go about their business in peace.